Name, colors have changed, but Seniors still winning in Bangor

Mike Tenney

Published 3:00 pm, Tuesday, August 12, 2014

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The West University Little League Senior 15-16 team shows off their Southwest Regional championship banner that clinched their berth to the current Senior Little League World Series in Bangor, Maine. The Seniors have won their first three games at the Series to clinch a berth in Friday’s semifinals and they will wrap up Pool play 7 p.m. Thursday afternoon against Latin America. The Seniors are attempting to win the World Series for the first time since 2009. less

The West University Little League Senior 15-16 team shows off their Southwest Regional championship banner that clinched their berth to the current Senior Little League World Series in Bangor, Maine. The ... more

Name, colors have changed, but Seniors still winning in Bangor

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The name has changed for the local baseball artists formerly known as the West University Little League (15-16) Senior team.

They are now Team Southwest.

But when it comes to winning games at the Little League World Series in Bangor, Maine in the final tournament of the summer where 10 teams are vying for a World Championship, nothing has changed for these guys because the Seniors have clinched a spot in Friday’s semifinals.

“Yeah, we’ve had a name change and we’ve changed colors,” Seniors manager Clint Sauls said. “We’re not wearing our green anymore. We’re gray with the navy blue and the kids really like it. It’s a nice look. So the kids are having a great time and we’re just having a lot of fun right now.”

That’s because on top of the dashing new unis, they are off to a 3-0 start in Pool B Play after first blitzing the U.S. East champion Edgewood Little League from Bristol, Connecticut 10-0 Sunday night in their World Series opener and then defeating Central champion West Little League from Grand Rapids, Michigan, 6-0 Monday night before they survived their toughest encounter this summer with an eight-inning 11-3 win over Emilia, Italy Tuesday afternoon.

“They were tough. Very tough,” Sauls said after beating Italy. “They had three good (arms) that kept us off-balance, but fortunately we were able to have a big inning at the end. We used a couple of walks and a few key hits to get things going. It was good to see the kids respond the way they did in a tight situation like that. But give Italy credit. It was not the same Italian Little League team that we’re used to playing...that’s for sure.”

The Seniors can now enjoy a day off Wednesday before finishing up Pool B action 7 p.m. Thursday evening against what Sauls describes as a “solid” Latin-American team, which won its first game Sunday night by a 7-0 count.

“They’re going to be tough. We have seen them play and they will be tough,” Sauls said. “But we have a day off, which we’re looking forward too and I think we’ll be ready to play Thursday night.”

After having no real problems in their first two games and not allowing any runs, the Seniors found the Africa-Europe representatives to be a resilient bunch.

The locals scored a run in the top of the second and another in the top of the fourth to grab a 2-0 lead before the Italians ended the Seniors’ scoreless pitching streak in the Senior World Series at 14 innings by scoring three times in the home half of the fourth to take a 3-2 lead.

Team Southwest came right back in the top of the fifth to tie the game at three and it remained that way until the top of the eighth when West University sent a dozen men to the plate, scored eight times, and totally took control of the game.

“We were glad we were finally able to relax a little,” Sauls said.

Andrew Hoffman was the starting pitcher for West U and he went the first three.

Cameron Cash came on to get two outs in the fourth inning inning before Jacob Millender took the mound and threw the final four-and-a-third innings to get the win.

“Andrew did a great job for us and Jacob came on and pitched well for us,” Sauls said.

Owen Holt paced the offense by going 4-for-5 with three RBI and he scored twice. Jimmy Winston added three hits and scored twice while Julian Cranfield and Millender each had two hits apiece.

In that decisive eighth inning, the Seniors used five singles, a William James double, three walks and a hit-by-pitch to just keep motoring around the bases.

With a win Thursday over Latin America, Team Southwest will finish 4-0 in pool play and face the second place team out of Pool A Friday while a loss would probably drop them to second in Pool B and put them in a matchup with the Pool A champion.

Sauls said they are looking forward to that game and then Friday and he hopes they will play their best baseball of the summer during the time period because they will need too.